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Blutkrieg
The Beginnings After the reign of Napoleon, a great council of Europe was created to keep peace, and keep balance. From 1815 to 1870, Europe experienced a period of stability and prosperity. However, the balance that kept Europe together would be torn apart, by the birth of an Empire. Reichsgeburt Reichsgeburt- Birth of an Empire. In 1871, the Iron Chancellor united the German Confederation into a single empire, under its Kaiser, Wilhelm I. The Second Republic of France refused its creation. War was coming to Europe. Humiliation Despite the Empire's recent foundation, The Kaiser's Armies marched triumphantly into France, and the German Falcon flew above the Eiffel Tower in less than a year. It was undisputed; Germany had risen. The Iron Chancellor is broken Despite the fact that the Iron Chancellor was only the second highest authority in the Empire, it was obvious that he was incredibly popular. His administrative prowess and intelligence turned Prussia from a minor power, humiliated and beaten, to a glorious Empire, stretching from Memel to Alsace-Lorraine. Although Wilhelm I was accepting of such an ally in court, his grandson of the same name refused to be cheated of his birthright by an old, shrewd man. In 1890, as a new century was approaching, and the Kaiser was ''yearning ''for his Place in the Sun, Bismarck left the nation he built in the hands of the Kaiser. Our Place in the Sun The Iron Chancellor had worked tirelessly to keep Germany diplomatically flexible. Russia, Britain, France, Italy, the Ottoman Empire, all potential allies if blood began to spill in Europe. The Kaiser would not accept this; it refused the Empire its place in the sun. To secure such a thing, the Kaiser wanted to dominate. The Kaiser wanted to expand. The Kaiser wanted to kill. The Russian Empire, long the laughingstock of Europe after its humiliation at the hands of the Japanese, was building up. Russia was undoubtably the richest nation in Europe, perhaps even the world. Its industry was developing quickly. The Kaiser knew Russia must fall, lest it grow too powerful. On June 28th, as Archduke Franz Ferdinand lay dead in his car, he saw an opportunity. Then, he took it. A Sunny Day in Sarajevo Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire toured the province of Bosnia, perhaps the most rebellious nation crushed under Austrian heels, in an open-top car, on a famous Bosniak Nationalist Holiday. Those who would die for a free Bosnia knew something must be done. Gavrilo Princip, a young man, enraged at his Austrian oppressors, joined with a secret group of assassins supported by Serbia to kill the Archduke. As the heir to Austria, waved to the loving crowds, bombs began to rain on the parade. The Archduke quickly sped off, as bombs exploded on the pavement, and screams erupted. Not an hour later, as the fear began to die, Ferdinand decided to visit with the injured in the hospitals, comforting and talking to them, attempting to make amends. However, the failed assassin, Princip, sat in a cafe, eating a sandwich, and wallowing in failure. To his shock, the young man saw the Archduke, arguing with his driver about the correct route. No, it couldn't be. The Archduke? Right here? Right now? 'I must do something!' he said to himself. 'For Bosnia'. Gavrilo Princip pulled out a pistol. Then, he opened fire. A War of Blood Franz Ferdinand, while a racist, while an imperialist, while a man not known for his kindness or his compassion, was the man that prevented the War of Blood, the Blutkrieg from occurring many times. The Chief of the Army, Conrad von Hotzendorf, had petitioned the Emperor of Austria, Franz Joseph, to declare war on Serbia, and therefore anger her great Slavic Orthodox ally, the Russian Empire. His son, however, Franz Joseph, equally encouraged the Emperor to stay peaceful, and friendly. Now, he was dead on the streets of Sarajevo, and Franz Joseph wanted revenge. So, the Emperor drafted his ultimatum, and sent it to the small kingdom. The Emperor did not design the ultimatum to be accepted; he created it to be denied. The fiercely independent Kingdom of Serbia would never cede its independence through a treaty. On June 29th, the Emperor and the Kaiser exchanged their thoughts. The Kaiser made his intentions obviously clear. Germany would support the Austrians in every endeavor. Germany began to plan. Ostangriff A war with Russia, and its ally, France, had been a topic of constant focus. In 1906, the German Chief of Staff created a plan; to invade France through neutral Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, capture Paris, then transport the Army to the East, to defeat the Russians, who were far slower to assemble. However, some in the German Government believed this plan was outdated, and many pressured the new Chief of Staff, Helmuth von Moltke the Younger, to adjust it. Moltke saw the flaws in the plan, as the introduction of an Air Force and Russian Modernization had changed the battlefield since 1906. As such, Moltke discarded the Schleiffen Plan in favor of a new strategy, which he dubbed 'Ostangriff', Eastern Attack. After extensive arguments, explanations, and revisions, Kaiser Wilhelm II approved this new plan, for the upcoming war. Caesar and Caesar, Kaiser and Tsar Although the French portion of the Franco-German border was heavily defended, Germany relied on their better equipped army. Upon seeing that German forces were far outnumbered by the French, France began an offensive into Alsace-Lorraine. However, thousands were ground to death by artillery shells, as the French had not fought a war since 1871, and were wholly unprepared for this new war. Over a quarter million French men died senselessly before the generals backed down and ceased the offensive. In the East, the Germans came to similar victories. Lodz and Tannenberg were the site of brutal Russian slaughters. As Bulgaria assisted Austria-Hungary with an invasion of Serbia, the K.u.K Armee marched to the snowy wastes of Russia. La Scelta In the years before the Blutkrieg, Italy had affiliated itself with Austria, but it believed Trieste and Trentino were Italian, and rightfully theirs. In 1915, an Italian ambassador approached Franz Joseph. They came to an agreement; Italy was to be the newest member of the Central Powers, and the disputed territory was to be given to Italy. Italy began an offensive in the Alps, further distracting French interests, however the Alpine war was met with much less failure than Alsace-Lorraine. The Sick Man of Europe The Ottoman Empire was undisputedly weaker than it had ever been. Once the greatest nation of Europe, it was now hungrily looked upon by both Austrian and British imperialists. However, it was still a hub of natural resources, and a center of trade. As the war began, Germany and the Ottoman Empire signed an official treaty creating an alliance. In early 1915, the Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia, and began fighting in the Caucasus. A Warm day in March As the German offensive in Russia escalated even further with the capture of Riga, unrest in Petrograd was mounting. Lenin's Red Guard in Moscow posed a constant threat to the state, and they could not expel him, for fear of a coup. Most Imperial officials believed Lenin would not make an attempt to take over until the war with Germany was resolved, but with the capture of the Tsar in the Encirclement of Minsk, Lenin stormed the Imperial Palace, and executed Kerensky, the Tsarina and her family. A day later, Lenin proclaimed the socialist revolution complete. The Germans sent back the Tsar, hoping to regain authority, but the Tsar, as well as his German guards, were killed by a serf ambush in Nizhny Novgorod. Lenin's authority was firmly cemented, with the exception of Brusilov's Revolt, which was squashed in less than two months. On which the sun never sets The United Kingdom, now increasingly worried about German hegemony, sent the cruiser HMS Black Prince to scrape German waters, hoping to fabricate an indecent. The German SMS Seydlitz fired upon it, sinking the ship. A large portion of the Royal Navy in the North Sea converged, meeting the Seydlitz four hours later, and destroying it. The fleet pressed on, shelling Hamburg for an hour, before retreating. The German Empire demanded two British battlecruisers as a repayment, but the British refused. The United Kingdom, the Empire on which the sun never sets, and all its dominions, was going to war. The British Expeditionary Force took off of the harbors in the south of England, landing on Calais, Brittany, and Normandy several days later under Douglas Haig. The Deutsches Heer marched from Ukraine to Brandenburg. When the BEF arrived in France, the Army had already arrived at Bavaria.